Borislav Herak (born 18 January 1971 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina) was a Bosnian Serb soldier who fought with the Army of Republika S...

Borislav Herak (born 18 January 1971 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina) was a Bosnian Serb soldier who fought with the Army of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early days of the Bosnian War and the first person to be convicted of the crime of genocide. His confessions were the subject of a Pulitzer Prize-winning article by John F. Burns.
Crimes and trial
On 7 February 1993 the District Military Prosecutor's Office in Sarajevo filed an indictment with the District Military Court in Sarajevo against Herak for genocide, war crimes against a civilian population and war crimes against prisoners of war, committed while he was a member of "Bioča Company" and "Kremeš Company". Borislav Herak was charged with 32 murders and 16 rapes, including 12 in which the victims were murdered. Sretko Damjanović, indicted with him for genocide and war crimes against a civilian population, was charged with five murders and two rapes, and Nada Tomić was charged with concealment of crime for hiding fugitives (Herak and Damjanović) and stolen goods.
The trial of Damjanović and Herak in March 1993 was the first attempt by the Sarajevo legal system to try Bosnian Serbs for genocide and other war crimes. During his trial Herak said he was sent with some soldiers from Serbia to the village of Ahatovici, near Sarajevo, with orders "to kill everybody and burn everything down." About 150 villagers, including children, were herded together and machine-gunned before being dumped, some still alive, in a mass grave. Herak also confessed to rapes and murders of detainees at the Cafe SonyaKod Sonje rape camp run by Miro Vuković near the United Nations headquarters in Sarajevo.
In March 1993, by a judgment of the District Military Court, Herak and Damjanović were found guilty of all charges and sentenced to death. The two were sentenced to death by firing squad. Herak said that he deserved the death penalty.
There were no witnesses to the killings and no bodies were recovered. The two men were convicted largely on the basis of Herak's confession after Damjanović retracted his confession, claiming that he had been beaten and tortured into confessing.
In July 1993, the second instance court upheld the findings of guilt and the penalties imposed. The third instance court hearing in December 1993 confirmed the judgment of the second instance court. It was claimed that the trial was a showcase and the accused had not had a fair hearing. However the court rejected the call for a retrial of Damjanović, saying that "there was plenty of other evidence sufficient for a verdict."
Herak recanted his testimony in January 1996, claiming that his testimony before the Bosnian court was beaten out of him. He maintained that he had witnessed killings and heard about rapes but had not done anything himself In the meanwhile, two Muslim brothers, Kasim and Asim Blekić, whose supposed murders were used as evidence in the trial of Herak and Damjanović had been found living in a Sarajevo suburb.
In February 2000 the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina ordered a retrial of Sretko Damjanović, who was acquitted. Requests for Herak's retrial were rejected, leaving Herak the only person convicted of genocide by a local court before the establishment of the state Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the first person to be convicted of the crime of genocide since the Second World War. His death penalty was altered to 20 years imprisonment.

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